Cognitive and contextual queue management

ABSTRACT

A queue management system including a user data retrieving circuit configured to retrieve a user property of the user and a queue managing circuit configured to model the plurality of users as a non-Newtonian fluid, to analyze the user properties to assign each user an anisometric polarity parameter, and to solve an objective function for a queue property to cause the plurality of users to collectively act as the non-Newtonian fluid in the queue.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a Divisional application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/659,8381, filed on Oct. 22, 2019, which is aContinuation Application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/160,611,now U.S. Pat. No. 10,552,880, issued on Feb. 4, 2020, the entirecontents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates generally to a queue management system,and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a system foroptimizing queues based on cognitive, contextual data, and userproperties modeled as a fluid.

Conventionally, queue management systems have included a paper ticket inwhich a person takes a number and their position in a queue is based ontheir number being called on a “first-come first-called” protocol (i.e.,“first-in-time”). Other conventional techniques have considered anapplication that requires a person to log into a mobile application tosee an employee (i.e., doctor, etc.) and request the next number in aqueue. Even other conventional techniques have considered a centralizedkiosk that each individual approaches, inputs information, and receivestheir number in the queue.

However, the conventional techniques merely create a queue (i.e., anorder) of individuals and do not consider re-ordering the queue based onany factors other than a “first-in-time” technique that follow thepremise of the first user to enter the queue is earlier in the queuethan a second user to enter the queue.

That is, there is a technical problem in the conventional techniquesthat the conventional techniques do not consider an efficient queuemanagement technique using contextual, cognitive, user properties,and/or other resources to more efficiently and dynamically order thequeue rather than the “first-in-time” technique.

SUMMARY

The inventors have considered the newly identified technical problem andrealized that there is a significant need for more efficient queuemanagement beyond the conventional “first-in-time” techniques.

Thus, the inventions have realized a technical solution to the newlyidentified technical problem by re-ordering the queue based on thecognitive factors, contextual factors, and/or imbuing the individuals inthe queue with properties based on, for example, Dissipative ParticleDynamics (DPD), to create a better flow of people in a queue. Therefore,venue operators can achieve more detailed analytics for people waitingin a queue and the venues can be more efficient by managing customers inqueue to maximize queue times to increase revenue.

In an exemplary embodiment, the present invention can provide a queuemanagement system including a device recognition circuit configured torecognize when a user device enters a queuing zone, and place a userhaving the user device into a queue with a plurality of users, a userdata retrieving circuit configured to retrieve at least one of cognitivedata and contextual data of the user, and a queue managing circuitconfigured to analyze the contextual data and the cognitive data tocreate a queue property for each user of the plurality of users in thequeue based on the analyzed contextual data and the analyzed cognitivedata.

Further, in another exemplary embodiment, the present invention canprovide a queue management system, comprising a device recognitioncircuit configured to recognize when a user device enters a queuingzone, and to place a user having the user device into a queue with aplurality of users, a user data retrieving circuit configured toretrieve a user property of the user, and a queue managing circuitconfigured to model the plurality of users as a non-Newtonian fluid,analyze the user properties to assign each user an anisometric polarityparameter, and to solve an objective function for a queue property tocause the plurality of users to collectively act as the non-Newtonianfluid in the queue.

Even further, in another exemplary embodiment, the present invention canprovide a queue management method, including recognizing when a userdevice enters a queuing zone and placing a user having the user deviceinto a queue with a plurality of users, retrieving at least one ofcognitive data and contextual data of the user, and managing the queueby analyzing the contextual data and the cognitive data to create aqueue property for each user of the plurality of users in the queuebased on the analyzed contextual data and the analyzed cognitive data.

There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, an embodiment of theinvention in order that the detailed description thereof herein may bebetter understood, and in order that the present contribution to the artmay be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional exemplaryembodiments of the invention that will be described below and which willform the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited in itsapplication to the details of construction and to the arrangements ofthe components set forth in the following description or illustrated inthe drawings. The invention is capable of embodiments in addition tothose described and of being practiced and carried out in various ways.Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminologyemployed herein, as well as the abstract, are for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conceptionupon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basisfor the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carryingout the several purposes of the present invention. It is important,therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalentconstructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The exemplary aspects of the invention will be better understood fromthe following detailed description of the exemplary embodiments of theinvention with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 exemplarily shows a block diagram illustrating a configuration ofa queue management system 100.

FIG. 2 exemplarily shows a high level flow chart for a queue managementmethod 200.

FIG. 3 depicts a cloud computing node 10 according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 4 depicts a cloud computing environment 50 according to anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 depicts abstraction model layers according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

The invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1-5 , inwhich like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout. It isemphasized that, according to common practice, the various features ofthe drawing are not necessarily to scale. On the contrary, thedimensions of the various features can be arbitrarily expanded orreduced for clarity. Exemplary embodiments are provided below forillustration purposes and do not limit the claims.

With reference now to FIG. 1 , the queue management system 100 includesa device recognition circuit 101, a user data retrieving circuit 102, aqueue managing circuit 103, and a venue operating circuit 104. The queuemanagement system 100 includes a processor 180 and a memory 190, withthe memory 190 storing instructions to cause the processor 180 toexecute each circuit of queue management system 100. The processor andmemory may be physical hardware components, or a combination of hardwareand software components.

Although the queue management system 100 includes various circuits, itshould be noted that a queue management system can include modules inwhich the memory 190 stores instructions to cause the processor 180 toexecute each module of queue management system 100.

Also, each circuit can be a stand-alone device, unit, module, etc. thatcan be interconnected to cooperatively produce a transformation to aresult.

With the use of these various circuits, the queue management system 100may act in a more sophisticated and useful fashion, and in a cognitivemanner while giving the impression of mental abilities and processesrelated to knowledge, attention, memory, judgment and evaluation,reasoning, and advanced computation. That is, a system is said to be“cognitive” if it possesses macro-scale properties—perception,goal-oriented behavior, learning/memory and action—that characterizesystems (i.e., humans) that all agree are cognitive.

Cognitive states are defined as functions of measures of a user's totalbehavior collected over some period of time from at least one personalinformation collector (including musculoskeletal gestures, speechgestures, eye movements, internal physiological changes, measured byimaging circuits, microphones, physiological and kinematic sensors in ahigh dimensional measurement space) within a lower dimensional featurespace. In one exemplary embodiment, certain feature extractiontechniques are used for identifying certain cognitive and emotionaltraits. Specifically, the reduction of a set of behavioral measures oversome period of time to a set of feature nodes and vectors, correspondingto the behavioral measures' representations in the lower dimensionalfeature space, is used to identify the emergence of a certain cognitivestate(s) over that period of time. One or more exemplary embodiments usecertain feature extraction techniques for identifying certain cognitivestates. The relationship of one feature node to other similar nodesthrough edges in a graph corresponds to the temporal order oftransitions from one set of measures and the feature nodes and vectorsto another. Some connected subgraphs of the feature nodes are hereinalso defined as a cognitive state. The present application alsodescribes the analysis, categorization, and identification of thesecognitive states by means of further feature analysis of subgraphs,including dimensionality reduction of the subgraphs, for example bymeans of graphical analysis, which extracts topological features andcategorizes the resultant subgraph and its associated feature nodes andedges within a subgraph feature space.

Although as shown in FIGS. 3-5 and as described later, the computersystem/server 12 is exemplarily shown in cloud computing node 10 as ageneral-purpose computing circuit which may execute in a layer the queuemanagement system 100 (FIG. 5 ), it is noted that the present inventioncan be implemented outside of the cloud environment.

The queue management system 100 can be utilized in a venue that includesa pre-defined queuing zone. A queuing zone is an area of the venue ornear the venue in which the user is able to be detected to be therewithin. For example, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and Wi-Fisensors are provided in the venues. The BLE beacons or Wi-Fi sensorstransmit a wireless Bluetooth or Wi-Fi signal to enabled devices, suchas smart phones, that can notify an application on the device that it iswithin the proximity of a specified location (i.e., the queuing zone). Avenue operator specifies a size of the queueing zones based on the needsof the venue.

The device recognition circuit 101 monitors the queuing zone andrecognizes when a user device 150 has entered the zone. The devicerecognition circuit 101 places the recognized user into a queue. Theuser can be the only user in the queue (i.e., if the user is the firstuser in the queuing zone that day), or the user is placed into the queuewith a plurality of other users already in the queue. Alternatively, thesystem 100 could utilize existing queueing techniques in order to labelwhich users to place into the queue.

Based on the device recognition circuit 101 recognizing a user device150 in the queuing zone, the user data retrieving circuit 102 retrievesdata about the user to efficiently place the user in the current queue.

That is, the data retrieving circuit 102 retrieves cognitive data andcontextual data of the user from the user device 150, sensor 140,wearables 130, and/or database 160 along with properties of the user tomodel the queue of users as a fluid (e.g., using fluid mechanicproperties, etc.) that can be retrieved from the user device 150, thesensor 140, the wearables 130, and/or the database 160. In other words,the user is put in the queue by the device recognition circuit 101, butas described later, the queue managing circuit 103 will re-order ortransform the plurality of users in the queue such that the queue ismore efficient based on the cognitive data, contextual data, and/orproperties of the users.

The contextual data can include, for example, user information (e.g.,age, gender, height, weight, etc.), customer/user history (e.g., aloyalty ranking of the user, loyalty program member, frequency ofpurchases, frequency of using customer support, frequency of referralsto other customers, etc.), historical information such as if the userhas been in the queuing zone before, weather data (for example, if it iscold outside, the data would indicate that a queue outside should bemoved inside or the like), time of day, and social/news alerts tomonitor complaints from a user about the queue or potential spikes inusers wanting to join the queue. Therefore, if a user is creating badreviews for a venue because of a queue time, the contextual data can becollected to indicate this and output the data to the queue managingcircuit 103.

Other contextual data can include the user's schedule, income, cash orcredit spender, etc. That is, data regarding a user's schedule can helpplace a user in queue if the user is not busy the whole day or only hasa few minutes to get in and out of the queue. Or, if the queue is for anexpensive item that is outside of a price range of a user who hasentered the queuing zone, the contextual data can be collected that mayhelp rank the user towards the back of the queue since they cannotpurchase an item even if placed in queue.

Cognitive data collected about the user include, for example, mobiledevice activity showing if the user is wandering, if the user knows whatthey are doing, if the user needs help, if the user is pacing;biometrics indicating human characteristics of the user to show anemotion such as measuring the user's heart rate, blood pressure, bodytemperature, etc.; an analysis of the user's speech to predict anemotion of the user (e.g., is the user happy waiting or very upsetwaiting based on their speech); an analysis of the user's mobile deviceuse, such as if the user is talking, texting, browsing, verifying thetype of content to measure a user's boredom or if the user is contentbeing in a queue, the cadence of the use of the phone to indicate theemotional state of the user, and other data that can be measured toindicate cognitive features of the user.

Properties of the user to model the queue of users as a non-Newtonianfluid (i.e. “user properties”) can include, for example, the position ofthe users and assigning to each an anisometric polarity parameter basedon analysis of the user's cognitive state, wearables signals, their mostlikely direction of movement, heading, focus of attention, bodyorientation, etc.

The user data retrieving circuit 102 sends the cognitive data,contextual data, and the user properties to the queue managing circuit103.

In a first embodiment, the queue managing circuit 103 analyzes thecontextual data and the cognitive data and orders the queue of usersbased on the analyzed data. That is, the queue managing circuit 103weighs the contextual data and the cognitive data to determine what auser's position in queue should be in order to optimize the queue.

For example, if the queue managing circuit 103 analyses the cognitivedata and contextual data of a user and determines that the user iscausing a scene and disrupting the entire queue, the queue managingcircuit 103 can put that particular user in front of the queue to removethe disruption.

The queue managing circuit 103 includes a venue operating circuit 104 inwhich the venue can modify the weights of the cognitive data andcontextual data, remove a user from the queue, allow a user to leave thequeueing zone and remain in the queue, etc.

For example, if the venue is focused on public persona, even if thecontextual data of the above user shows that the user cannot purchasethe product, and has nothing else to do that day, the venue can inputvia the venue operating circuit 104 that the cognitive data of adisruption or frustration is weighted ahead of all other factors.Therefore, even if a second user has contextual data showing that theuser only has a brief time to wait in queue, the queue managing circuit103 places the first user causing the disruption ahead of the seconduser with limited time based on the venue inputting the preferences viathe venue operating circuit 104. As such, the venue can dynamicallyadjust or modify the queue and/or conditions of the queue.

Further, the venue operating circuit 104 can indicate to the queuemanaging circuit 103 to exclude a particular device (i.e., an employeedevice).

Also, the venue can set the needs of the queue using the venue operatingcircuit 104 to cause the queue managing circuit 103 to weigh thecognitive data and contextual data based on, for example, brand loyaltyof customers who have been loyal in the past are rewarded with fasterservice.

Based on the analysis of the contextual data and the cognitive data, thequeue managing circuit 103 outputs a queue property 170. The queueproperty 170 includes the order of the users in queue and dynamicallychanges as new users enter the queueing zone.

In a second embodiment, the queue managing circuit 103 analyzes the userproperties to assign each user an anisometric polarity parameter. Thatis, the queue managing circuit 103 manages the crowd of users based onDissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD) for creating a stochastic simulationsimulating the dynamics and properties of the crowd as a complex fluidto determine how the crowd is moving in space.

DPD is an off-lattice mesoscopic simulation technique which involves aset of particles moving in continuous space and discrete time. Particlesrepresent whole molecules or fluid regions, rather than single atoms,and atomistic details are not considered relevant to the processesaddressed. The particles' internal degrees of freedom are integrated outand replaced by simplified pairwise dissipative and random forces, so asto conserve momentum locally and ensure correct hydrodynamic behavior.

The queue managing circuit 103 uses an objective function which solvesfor the properties of the modeled fluid in the stochastic simulation tobecome more like a non-Newtonian fluid (i.e., a pseudoplastic fluid, asheer thinning fluid, etc.).

The queue managing circuit 103 then computes the changes in theproperties of the particles of the stochastic simulation from thereceived user properties to the user properties acting as apseudoplastic fluid.

Therefore, the queue managing circuit 103 solves for the change requiredto the properties of each user to cause the user properties to act likeparticles of the pseudoplastic fluid. As a result, the queue managingcircuit 103 is able to use the change to signal to each user to changetheir properties in accordance with the change such that if a stress(i.e., a crowd controlling signal to control the queue such as a “boardnow” sign in an airport, a “store is open” sign at a store, etc.) isactivated, the user, and collectively the crowd, will act in an optimalmanner to dissipate the queue.

In other words, a signal to the plurality of users to cause a changeacts as a stress to a non-Newtonian fluid and will deform the queue.

That is, by modeling a crowd of individuals as a suspension of particlesin a pseudoplastic fluid, flow rates into and through a virtual queue(for example, an airport boarding gate) can be maximized using thecurrent invention. Specifically, by monitoring the position ofindividuals (for example throughout an airport) and assigning to each ananisometric polarity parameter based on an analysis of the individual'scognitive state, wearables signals, the users most likely direction ofmovement, heading, focus of attention, body orientation, etc., theviscosity of a group of individuals may be estimated.

Then, based on the queue managing circuit 103 analysis of a changerequired to manipulate the anisometric polarity to have the crowd act asa pseudoplastic, alerts may be sent to individuals (i.e., the queueproperty 170 output by the system 100) to change their anisometricpolarity, and thereby the viscosity of the virtual fluid they comprise.

For example, the second embodiment considers a situation where a virtualqueue is formed such as a full terminal with multiple gates. The secondembodiment can assume that at any given time, 10% of individuals areboarding through a single given gate. The full terminal is modeled as ata suspension fluid by the queue managing circuit 103, and theanisometric polarity of all individuals may be modified by alerts suchas a flashing light in the environment, a loud speaker, a text message,etc. These alerts may be provided to different individuals at differenttimes to allow the large funneling of individuals to and through theboarding gate to be continuous and efficient. Individuals, based on thismodel created by the queue managing circuit 103, do not pause and wait,because the solution to the objective function and required change inproperties of the users as calculated by the queue managing circuit 103allows each user of the crowd to move at the right time, in the correctorientation, and at the correct rate, to establish a low pseudoplasticviscosity and a high flow rate. In other words, the crowd forming thevirtual queue dissipates most efficiently such that each user of thecrowd arrives at the destination for which they are in the virtualqueue, at an optimal time.

As noted above, the queue managing circuit 103 also considers theperturbation of others in the terminal who are not boarding (i.e., the90% not boarding at the gate), but whose movements can add to thepseudoplastic properties of the crowd. The queue managing circuit 103can model the changes required to the users' properties not part of thevirtual queue to request those users move or model the users in thevirtual queue to avoid the users not in the virtual queue.

The first and second embodiment disclosed herein can allow for improvedqueue management to provide a technical solution by re-ordering thequeue based on the cognitive or contextual factors and/or imbuing theindividuals in the queue with properties based on dissipative particledynamics to create a better flow of people in a queue. Therefore, venueoperators can get more detailed analytics for people waiting in a queueand businesses can be more efficient by managing customers in queueproperly to maximize efficiency to increase revenue.

FIG. 2 shows a high level flow chart for a method 200 of queuemanagement.

Step 201 monitors a queuing zone and recognizes when a user device 150has entered the queuing zone. Step 201 places the recognized user into aqueue. Alternatively, the method 200 could utilize existing queueingtechniques in order to label which users to place into the queue. Inother words, the method can begin at Step 202 with a queue alreadyformed and users identified in the queue.

Step 202 retrieves cognitive data and contextual data of the user fromthe user device 150, sensor 140, wearables 130, and/or database 160along with properties of the user to model the queue of users as a fluidthat can be retrieved from the user device 150, the sensor 140, and thewearables 130, and/or the database 160.

Step 203 analyzes the contextual data and the cognitive data and ordersthe queue of users based on the analyzed data. That is, step 203 weighsthe contextual data and the cognitive data to determine what a user'sposition in queue should be in order to optimize the queue.

In a second embodiment, Step 203 can use an objective function to solvefor the properties of the modeled fluid in a stochastic simulation tobecome more like pseudoplastic fluid. Thus, Step 203 calculates thechange required to the properties of the users to cause the users in avirtual queue to act as a pseudoplastic fluid such that the virtualqueue is optimized.

Step 204 allows a venue to modify the weights of the cognitive data andcontextual data, remove a user from the queue, allow a user to leave thequeueing zone and remain in the queue, etc.

The method 200 outputs a queue property 170 including the order of usersof the queue or the change required to each user's properties to causethe virtual queue to act as a pseudoplastic fluid.

Exemplary Hardware Aspects, Using a Cloud Computing Environment

It is understood in advance that although this disclosure includes adetailed description on cloud computing, implementation of the teachingsrecited herein are not limited to a cloud computing environment. Rather,embodiments of the present invention are capable of being implemented inconjunction with any other type of computing environment now known orlater developed.

Cloud computing is a model of service delivery for enabling convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g. networks, network bandwidth, servers, processing,memory, storage, applications, virtual machines, and services) that canbe rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort orinteraction with a provider of the service. This cloud model may includeat least five characteristics, at least three service models, and atleast four deployment models.

Characteristics are as follows:

On-demand self-service: a cloud consumer can unilaterally provisioncomputing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, asneeded automatically without requiring human interaction with theservice's provider.

Broad network access: capabilities are available over a network andaccessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneousthin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs).

Resource pooling: the provider's computing resources are pooled to servemultiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physicaland virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according todemand. There is a sense of location independence in that the consumergenerally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of theprovided resources but may be able to specify location at a higher levelof abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter).

Rapid elasticity: capabilities can be rapidly and elasticallyprovisioned, in some cases automatically, to quickly scale out andrapidly released to quickly scale in. To the consumer, the capabilitiesavailable for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can bepurchased in any quantity at any time.

Measured service: cloud systems automatically control and optimizeresource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level ofabstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage,processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can bemonitored, controlled, and reported providing transparency for both theprovider and consumer of the utilized service.

Service Models are as follows:

Software as a Service (SaaS): the capability provided to the consumer isto use the provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure.The applications are accessible from various client circuits through athin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based e-mail).The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloudinfrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage,or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exceptionof limited user-specific application configuration settings.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): the capability provided to the consumer isto deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquiredapplications created using programming languages and tools supported bythe provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlyingcloud infrastructure including networks, servers, operating systems, orstorage, but has control over the deployed applications and possiblyapplication hosting environment configurations.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): the capability provided to theconsumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and otherfundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy andrun arbitrary software, which can include operating systems andapplications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlyingcloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage,deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networkingcomponents (e.g., host firewalls).

Deployment Models are as follows:

Private cloud: the cloud infrastructure is operated solely for anorganization. It may be managed by the organization or a third party andmay exist on-premises or off-premises.

Community cloud: the cloud infrastructure is shared by severalorganizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns(e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and complianceconsiderations). It may be managed by the organizations or a third partyand may exist on-premises or off-premises.

Public cloud: the cloud infrastructure is made available to the generalpublic or a large industry group and is owned by an organization sellingcloud services.

Hybrid cloud: the cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or moreclouds (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities butare bound together by standardized or proprietary technology thatenables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting forload-balancing between clouds).

A cloud computing environment is service oriented with a focus onstatelessness, low coupling, modularity, and semantic interoperability.At the heart of cloud computing is an infrastructure comprising anetwork of interconnected nodes.

Referring now to FIG. 3 , a schematic of an example of a cloud computingnode is shown. Cloud computing node 10 is only one example of a suitablecloud computing node and is not intended to suggest any limitation as tothe scope of use or functionality of embodiments of the inventiondescribed herein. Regardless, cloud computing node 10 is capable ofbeing implemented and/or performing any of the functionality set forthhereinabove.

In cloud computing node 10, there is a computer system/server 12, whichis operational with numerous other general purpose or special purposecomputing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-knowncomputing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may besuitable for use with computer system/server 12 include, but are notlimited to, personal computer systems, server computer systems, thinclients, thick clients, hand-held or laptop circuits, multiprocessorsystems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmableconsumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputer systems, mainframecomputer systems, and distributed cloud computing environments thatinclude any of the above systems or circuits, and the like.

Computer system/server 12 may be described in the general context ofcomputer system-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a computer system. Generally, program modules may includeroutines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and soon that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract datatypes. Computer system/server 12 may be practiced in distributed cloudcomputing environments where tasks are performed by remote processingcircuits that are linked through a communications network. In adistributed cloud computing environment, program modules may be locatedin both local and remote computer system storage media including memorystorage circuits.

As shown in FIG. 3 , computer system/server 12 in cloud computing node10 is shown in the form of a general-purpose computing circuit. Thecomponents of computer system/server 12 may include, but are not limitedto, one or more processors or processing units 16, a system memory 28,and a bus 18 that couples various system components including systemmemory 28 to processor 16.

Bus 18 represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures,including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, anaccelerated graphics port, and a processor or local bus using any of avariety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not limitation,such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus,Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, VideoElectronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and PeripheralComponent Interconnects (PCI) bus.

Computer system/server 12 typically includes a variety of computersystem readable media. Such media may be any available media that isaccessible by computer system/server 12, and it includes both volatileand non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media.

System memory 28 can include computer system readable media in the formof volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM) 30 and/or cachememory 32. Computer system/server 12 may further include otherremovable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storagemedia. By way of example only, storage system 34 can be provided forreading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media(not shown and typically called a “hard drive”). Although not shown, amagnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable,non-volatile magnetic disk (e.g., a “floppy disk”), and an optical diskdrive for reading from or writing to a removable, non-volatile opticaldisk such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media can be provided.In such instances, each can be connected to bus 18 by one or more datamedia interfaces. As will be further depicted and described below,memory 28 may include at least one program product having a set (e.g.,at least one) of program modules that are configured to carry out thefunctions of embodiments of the invention.

Program/utility 40, having a set (at least one) of program modules 42,may be stored in memory 28 by way of example, and not limitation, aswell as an operating system, one or more application programs, otherprogram modules, and program data. Each of the operating system, one ormore application programs, other program modules, and program data orsome combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networkingenvironment. Program modules 42 generally carry out the functions and/ormethodologies of embodiments of the invention as described herein.

Computer system/server 12 may also communicate with one or more externalcircuits 14 such as a keyboard, a pointing circuit, a display 24, etc.;one or more circuits that enable a user to interact with computersystem/server 12; and/or any circuits (e.g., network card, modem, etc.)that enable computer system/server 12 to communicate with one or moreother computing circuits. Such communication can occur via Input/Output(I/O) interfaces 22. Still yet, computer system/server 12 cancommunicate with one or more networks such as a local area network(LAN), a general wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g.,the Internet) via network adapter 20. As depicted, network adapter 20communicates with the other components of computer system/server 12 viabus 18. It should be understood that although not shown, other hardwareand/or software components could be used in conjunction with computersystem/server 12. Examples, include, but are not limited to: microcode,circuit drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays,RAID systems, tape drives, and data archival storage systems, etc.

Referring now to FIG. 4 , illustrative cloud computing environment 50 isdepicted. As shown, cloud computing environment 50 comprises one or morecloud computing nodes 10 with which local computing circuits used bycloud consumers, such as, for example, personal digital assistant (PDA)or cellular telephone 54A, desktop computer 54B, laptop computer 54C,and/or automobile computer system 54N may communicate. Nodes 10 maycommunicate with one another. They may be grouped (not shown) physicallyor virtually, in one or more networks, such as Private, Community,Public, or Hybrid clouds as described hereinabove, or a combinationthereof. This allows cloud computing environment 50 to offerinfrastructure, platforms and/or software as services for which a cloudconsumer does not need to maintain resources on a local computingcircuit. It is understood that the types of computing circuits 54A-Nshown in FIG. 8 are intended to be illustrative only and that computingnodes 10 and cloud computing environment 50 can communicate with anytype of computerized circuit over any type of network and/or networkaddressable connection (e.g., using a web browser).

Referring now to FIG. 5 , a set of functional abstraction layersprovided by cloud computing environment 50 (FIG. 4 ) is shown. It shouldbe understood in advance that the components, layers, and functionsshown in FIG. 5 are intended to be illustrative only and embodiments ofthe invention are not limited thereto. As depicted, the following layersand corresponding functions are provided:

Hardware and software layer 60 includes hardware and softwarecomponents. Examples of hardware components include: mainframes 61; RISC(Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture based servers 62;servers 63; blade servers 64; storage circuits 65; and networks andnetworking components 66. In some embodiments, software componentsinclude network application server software 67 and data store software68.

Virtualization layer 70 provides an abstraction layer from which thefollowing examples of virtual entities may be provided: virtual servers71; virtual storage 72; virtual networks 73, including virtual privatenetworks; virtual applications and operating systems 74; and virtualclients 75.

In one example, management layer 80 may provide the functions describedbelow. Resource provisioning 81 provides dynamic procurement ofcomputing resources and other resources that are utilized to performtasks within the cloud computing environment. Metering and Pricing 82provide cost tracking as resources are utilized within the cloudcomputing environment, and billing or invoicing for consumption of theseresources. In one example, these resources may comprise applicationsoftware licenses. Security provides identity verification for cloudconsumers and tasks, as well as protection for data and other resources.User portal 83 provides access to the cloud computing environment forconsumers and system administrators. Service level management 84provides cloud computing resource allocation and management such thatrequired service levels are met. Service Level Agreement (SLA) planningand fulfillment 85 provide pre-arrangement for, and procurement of,cloud computing resources for which a future requirement is anticipatedin accordance with an SLA.

Workloads layer 90 provides examples of functionality for which thecloud computing environment may be utilized. Examples of workloads andfunctions which may be provided from this layer include: mapping andnavigation 91; software development and lifecycle management 92; virtualclassroom education delivery 93; data analytics processing 94;transaction processing 95; and, more particularly relative to thepresent invention, the queue management system 100 described herein.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

Further, Applicant's intent is to encompass the equivalents of all claimelements, and no amendment to any claim of the present applicationshould be construed as a disclaimer of any interest in or right to anequivalent of any element or feature of the amended claim.

What is claimed is:
 1. A queue management system, comprising: a devicerecognition circuit configured to recognize when a user device enters aqueuing zone, and to place a user having the user device into a queuewith a plurality of users; a user data retrieving circuit configured toretrieve a user property of the user; and a queue managing circuitconfigured to: model the plurality of users as a non-Newtonian fluid, toanalyze the user properties to assign each user an anisometric polarityparameter, and to solve an objective function for a queue property tocause the plurality of users to collectively act as the non-Newtonianfluid in the queue; and re-order the queue based on the anisometricpolarity parameter assigned to each user, wherein the queue propertycomprises a change in the anisometric polarity parameter required foreach user such that the plurality of users collectively act as thenon-Newtonian fluid when an event occurs to the queue, and wherein theevent occurring to the queue includes a signal, sent to the user device,causing the plurality of users to proceed through the queue.
 2. Thequeue management system of claim 1, wherein the objective function issolved for the queue property to cause the plurality of users tocollectively act as the non-Newtonian fluid in the queue by modeling theplurality of users as a suspension of particles in the non-Newtonianfluid to monitor based on an analysis of the user property to estimate aviscosity of the plurality of users in the non-Newtonian fluid.
 3. Thequeue management system of claim 2, wherein, based on the queue managingcircuit analysis of a change required to manipulate the anisometricpolarity to have the crowd act as a pseudoplastic, alerts are sent asthe queue property to the user device to change their anisometricpolarity, and thereby change the viscosity of the plurality of users inthe non-Newtonian fluid.
 4. The queue management system of claim 2,wherein the modelling alternatively models the plurality of users in thequeue by: creating a stochastic simulation based on Dissipative ParticleDynamics (DPD) that simulates dynamics and properties of the pluralityof users as a complex fluid to determine how the crowd is moving inspace; using the objective function to solve for the dynamics andproperties of the complex fluid in the stochastic simulation and computea change to the dynamics and properties to cause each of the pluralityof users to act as the non-Newtonian fluid; and modeling the pluralityof users as a suspension of particles in the non-Newtonian fluid basedon an analysis of a most likely direction of a movement of each user ofthe plurality of users and a result of the objective function, wherein aresult of the analysis estimates the viscosity of the plurality of usersin the non-Newtonian fluid, and wherein the queue is organized in aparticular order according to the result.
 5. A queue management method,comprising: determining when a user device enters a queuing zone, and toplace a user having the user device into a queue with a plurality ofusers; retrieving a user property of the user; modeling the plurality ofusers as a non-Newtonian fluid, to analyze the user properties to assigneach user an anisometric polarity parameter, and to solve an objectivefunction for a queue property to cause the plurality of users tocollectively act as the non-Newtonian fluid in the queue; andre-ordering the queue based on the anisometric polarity parameterassigned to each user, wherein the queue property comprises a change inthe anisometric polarity parameter required for each user such that theplurality of users collectively act as the non-Newtonian fluid when anevent occurs to the queue, and wherein the event occurring to the queueincludes a signal, sent to the user device, causing the plurality ofusers to proceed through the queue.
 6. A queue management system,comprising: a device recognition circuit configured to recognize when auser device enters a queuing zone, and to place a user having the userdevice into a queue with a plurality of users; a user data retrievingcircuit configured to retrieve a user property of the user; and a queuemanaging circuit configured to: model the plurality of users as anon-Newtonian fluid, to analyze the user properties to assign each useran anisometric polarity parameter, and to solve an objective functionfor a queue property to cause the plurality of users to collectively actas the non-Newtonian fluid in the queue, wherein a signal is sent to theuser device that causes the plurality of users to proceed through thequeue based on the anisometric polarity parameter assigned to each user.